More than 50 years after the death of Rev. James Reeb, the Alabama-based producers of a podcast about the Civil Rights cold case identified a fourth assailant who was never arrested.

White Lies hosts Chip Brantley and Andrew Beck Grace traveled to Selma – the scene of the beating that left Reeb with fatal head injuries – to find the man: Bill Portwood. He died in 2017 after a series of strokes and struggled to recall details during interviews. But he acknowledged his participation in the crime that took Reeb’s life.

“I was a part of it,” Portwood said in the sixth episode of the series. He admitted kicking one of three clergymen who had traveled to Selma for Civil Rights protests in March 1965.

Brantley and Grace zeroed in on Portwood after receiving a statement by Stanley Hoggle, one of the men arrested and later acquitted for Reeb’s murder. He placed Portwood at the scene and described him as an active participant in the attack.

Authorities arrested Stanley Hoggle, his brother Namon O’Neal “Duck” Hoggle and Elmer Cook hours after the attack on Reeb. An all-white jury voted to acquit the men after defense attorneys argued that Civil Rights activists hastened the minister’s death to create a white martyr for the cause.

The two hosts both grew up in Alabama and teach journalism and new media at the University of Alabama. When Brantley and Grace first received the FBI file and began working on the podcast, one of the questions they wanted to answer was whether everyone involved had been arrested.

“There had always been talk of four or five men involved in the attack,” Grace said. “Without knowing a lot of the backstory, and coming to it fresh from out of town, we were curious if we could find more information.”

The search for truth didn’t stop at Portwood. The hosts realized three of the men responsible for Reeb’s death walked free because many white citizens chose to believe the narrative that blamed Civil Rights activists.

“One of the things that’s been driving us is the question of what it means to be white Southerners and questioning the narrative of our history,” Grace said. “We thought maybe it’s time for us to try to reckon with some of the things in our past.”

The events of 1965 stained Selma’s reputation. Reeb’s death followed the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson in neighboring Perry County and the Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge that ended when police gassed and clubbed peaceful protesters. Another white Civil Rights activist, Violet Liuzzo, died after members of the Ku Klux Klan shot into her car as she drove volunteers from Selma to Montgomery.

The violence galvanized federal action, inspiring passage of the Voting Rights Act in August 1965.

It’s been difficult for the city to move beyond its image at a hotbed of violent white supremacy. Beth Spivey, director of the Old Depot Museum, said she admires the work that went into the podcast.

“They did a fantastic job,” Spivey said. “It’s amazing that two boys who aren’t even from here got people to open up like that. I never would have thought they would have found a soul who would tell the truth.”

She also worries about how the podcast will affect the community, which has struggled to emerge from its dark place in history.

“Nobody was ever prosecuted for it, and that still hurts,” Spivey said. “It’s not going to change anybody’s mind. People will believe what they want to believe.”

Prosecutors obtained convictions in the Liuzzo and Jackson cases, although it took 40 years for the officer who killed the Perry County activist. Justice never came in the Reeb case. Cook and the Hoggle brothers could not be retried for murder, and Portwood died before his involvement became public.

Grace and Brantley had hoped someone could be held accountable in the case. However, by the time they approached Portwood, he was old and frail. They met with him several times before he agreed to be taped, forming a relationship along the way.

“It was a real struggle,” Brantley said. “A lot of time elapsed from when we first met him and spoke to him until the time he allowed us to tape. “We were hoping to get it for the sake of justice and also for the story. At the same time, you could see his condition deteriorate.”

Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson prosecuted the state trooper who shot Jimmie Lee Jackson 42 years after his death. He said he believed the podcast could help bring healing to families and communities affected by Reeb’s murder.

“The reason murder doesn’t have a statute of limitations is because of all the anguish it causes,” Jackson said. “When someone gets killed, that’s a memory you can’t forget. I do wish this information had come out in time to prosecute. But things like this have a way of finally coming out in life.”